Question about the amount of feeding per pitcher.

[Fygee]

I'm curious as to how much I should feed per pitcher on my Burkei. Pitchers are of average size, and I've got squash bugs up the arse in my backyard. Approximately how much should I feed? Say, halfway up the pitcher, 1/3, to the top, etc?

I'm also curious as to what's the optimum amount of water I should have in each pitcher, as to not dilute the digestive fluids inside. Last thing I need is half digested, decomposing bugs in my plants.

 

[Jason Wong]

Let some flightless fruitflies go and watch as your neps help themselves to a hearty buffet.

 

[Capslock]

I don't feed anywhere near that much. I give my pitchers a dried cricket a month. I give the smaller pitchers a koi pellet when they open, then maybe one more. They catch a few bugs each on their own as well, but they've never really filled to any degree.

Capslock

 

[Fygee]

Alrighty, well, right now I've got one Burkei pitcher with two adult squash bugs (overall together they're about an adult cricket and a half), and I put one baby squash bug (about the size of your average housefly, only slightly wider) in the two small pitchers of my Judith Finn. Next time I'll have to see about getting getting Koi pellets, as getting the baby bugs into the pitchers was a bit of a chore.

About how much water should the pitchers have? Want to make sure I have enough without eventually being stuck with an undigested decomposing bug inside, along with the nasty water that would come with it case I add too much.

Also, about how long does it take to digest a decent sized meal? Want to make sure I can tell when there's not enough digestive action going on so I can take the nasty stuff out to prevent the pitcher from rotting.

 

[The Griffin]

If you have just one(or a few plants) you might try one bug(not huge) per pitcher, per week to see how that affects the growth. I have alwyas wanted to do that. I guess I can do that, if I want to, come to think of it.

Joe

 

[schloaty]

Many of my neps are outside on the deck...I find that they do slowly fill up with carcases, but not so fast that they can't digest the soft parts. I'd say they catch at least one bug per week per pitcher....At least. Some of them catch a lot more.

I recently tried an experiment where I added a slow-release fertilizer ball to a few pitchers instead of bugs (plants are inside, so a good control group). It's only been a day or two, so I haven't noticed anything yet....

 

[Fygee]

Alrighty, I have a supplimental question.

How do I know if the pitcher is properly digesting the bugs? The pitcher I gave the two small squashbugs to doesn't appear to have any kind of rotting going on, but I'm not sure if there's enough digestion action going on as the bugs still appear fully intact, and its creating a small but offensive smell. Basically, I need to know if things are working as they should, or if I should dump the bugs and nasty rotting water they're in so I don't end up losing the pitcher later on.

 

[schloaty]

Hey Fygee, since bugs where their bones on the outside (exoskeleton), most of them never really appear digested. A few of the softer ones will leave only bits behind, but any hard bugs like ants or beetles or whatever will not really change in appearance. It's the insides that get digested and absorbed.

 

[Clint]

schloaty is right, it's like when you eat corn, it always comes out looking whole.

that's the grossest thing i've ever said...

 

[schloaty]

Ugh, JLAP, that is quite the immage.

 

[swords]

Ok, I'm back on the chair now...!

I feed my Neps every 7-14 days (I'm gonan be feeding tonight actually). I try to do it every week but sometimes I'm busy with some other project and don't think to feed them. But they really do respond quite exceptionally to good feeding. I never was gonna feed my plants but people said that they would grow bigger and faster if I fed them with insects and they really do!

You do have to be careful with small pitchers and certian species who have very thin walled/delicate pitchers because they will rot very easily if a bit too much food is given at one time. I generally don't put more than one pinhead or two week old cricket in small pitchers (or large N. campanulata pitchers-which are still small) and one large adult cricket in each active large pitcher every one to two weeks. Whatever you feed be sure that it is completely submerged in the pitcher fluid, anything dead that sticks out of the fluid will rot and can be a place for fungus to settle in. I only use reptile feeder crickets and whatever happens to sneak into the growing chambers on it's own (Ladybugs mostly). I continue to feed the pitchers weekly/biweekly until they start to dry up and wither.

 

[Fygee]

Yeah, these squash bugs look particularly hard to tell if they're being digested as they have very opaque exoskeltons. I figured maybe you'd be able to tell if they're being digested or not, as they're rather fat bugs, and usually when they're eaten by spiders, which feed in a similar way, they curl up and shrink quite a bit in appearance.

I'm more concerned by the smell. My assumption is that something being properly digested wouldn't smell like it does, but I'm new to this so I could be wrong.

 

[Clint]

fygee- shake the pitchers gently, this will stir up the fluids and increase the acidity and help the pitcher digest whatever is left. maybe you fed too much?

keep in mind that a pitcher full of rotting bugs won't smell like a botanical garden.

 

[Fygee]

Well, I only fed it two small-medium squash bugs, which come out to about a cricket and a half.

I'm curious. Once the pitcher has gotten all it can from the bugs, so I dig out the empty exoskeletons and toss them, or leave it be?

 

[Clint]

leave them, how do YOU know when the plant has absorbed all that can be absorbed? the exoskeletons aren't hurting anything so leave them be.

besides.. i wouldn't want to touch them.. yuch!

 

[Nflytrap]

Given long enough, the shells will break apart and accumulate as bits at the bottom of the pitcher.

 

[pond boy]

I usualy feed a pill bug to each of my pitchers every 4 days. Oh,and yes eventualy the exoskeletons will turn to like this black gritty stuff,and there will usualy be lots of maggots! It doesn`t smell too pretty either.

How did that experiment go Dave?